A recent report from the Private Capital Markets Project at Pepperdine University shows that both investors and business owners appear to be cautiously optimistic about the direction of the economy, although financing remains tight. About three-quarters of bankers, 55 percent of asset-based lenders, 69 percent of factors, and 53 percent of angel investors forecast improving business conditions over the next 12 months.

On the other side of the table, more than half of business owners, when assessing the past 6 months, said that their revenues had increased, and 63 percent had greater opportunities for growth.

The report, prepared by senior researcher John Paglia, an associate professor of finance at the university, is an exhaustive (150-some pages) look at the deals under way at a range of lenders and investors: bank loan officers, angel investors, factoring firms, and PE groups, to name a few. more

A few posts back, inspired by the stunning news that Facebook’s customer satisfaction rating is even worse than that of the IRS’s e-filing program, I wrote about the giant social network’s possible future as a whistle-blower tool for tax authorities in developing countries such as the Philippines.

In a guest blog at the Tax Foundation today, Aaron Merchak stands that idea on its head and asks: Is Facebook actually on the verge of becoming a sovereign state, complete with taxes of its own? more

The story behind the rise of Silicon Valley’s high-tech industry is frequently retold as a series of engineering feats. However, Part I of my interview with veteran CFO Paul Vilandre reveals that the innovation responsible for the rise of Silicon Valley didn’t necessarily come from a lab.

BF: You’re frequently referred to as a “Silicon Valley CFO,” but where exactly did you begin your career?

Vilandre: My finance career spans more than 35 years in high tech. I started off with IBM, joined Digital Equipment, and came out to the West Coast to work for Intel. After 7 years at Intel, I served a string of start-ups as CFO.

BF: What can you tell us about the journey from back east to out west? What changed for you from a finance career perspective?

Vilandre: When I came out west in 1978 to Intel, I had a job very similar to what I had had at Digital. It was what we called a group controller. It was a senior financial job: the number two or number three (finance) executive in both companies. I had a similar number of people working for me, which was over 100. When I was at DEC, I was lucky to get 500 options a year, and I guess I was a pretty big star on the DEC finance team. I went to Intel for essentially the same job, and I received 5,000 options. So one of the differences between East Coast and West Coast firms in high tech was a factor of ten, and this applied across the board. At DEC, in addition to the 500 options I received, I was given another 500 options to spread around to the team. This meant that only two or three other people really received options. Meanwhile, when I got to Intel, in addition to the 5,000 I received, there were another 5,000 that I was given to spread around to the team. more

Achieving the full vision of the enterprise performance management framework involves more than selecting one of its many methodologies and then purchasing software to install and implement the solution. It requires individuals with talent and skills. Here is a list of famous people who have inspired me and exemplify the traits valuable in achieving that full vision:

• Socrates: An effective way to help people learn is by asking them questions that lead to meaning. Socrates taught Plato and other Greek philosophers by making them think about answers to his questions rather than just lecturing. For example, asking “Does our organization measure the correct performance indicators that reveal progress toward achieving our strategic objectives?” is more stimulating than simply providing a list of commonly accepted industry metrics.

• Thomas Jefferson: Americans typically have a favorite “founding father” of their nation. Mine is Jefferson because he believed in a fair society. Performance management involves equitable treatment of allocating resources to align with the organization’s strategy to optimize results. For example, activity-based costing traces costs accurately, compared to traditional broadly averaged cost allocations that give false impressions because some product’s costs subsidize others. more